Golovkin Figures To Be Too Strong For Adama, in Monaco Scrap

The Gennady Golovkin-Osumanu Adama bout unfolding Saturday in Monaco will be seen in over 200 countries. Sadly, America won't be one of them, as the facility where the scrap will take place isn't set up to accommodate the infrastructure material which would be needed to beam the bout to the US, via Golovkin's home-base platform provider, HBO, in a manner which would be acceptable to HBO's sky-high standards.

It's a shame, since I'm keen on watching "Good Boy" (seen in this pic by trainer Abel Sanchez) do his thing, show off those two destructive hands, that patient manner of demolition, that precise style of working towards a stoppage win against pretty much whoever he and promoter K2 decide to pair him with.

On Saturday, the foe is a man named Osumanu Adama, who'll seek to wrest Golovkin's WBA 160 pound crown from the 31-year-old hitter from Kazakhstan. Adama is from Ghana, and enters with a 22-3 record, with 16 KOs to his credit. The 33-year-old hitter, who now lives in Illinois, has won two straight, over journeyman Doel Carrasquillo, a sub .500 guy who knows how to fight and sometimes be the spoiler last summer, and vet Grady Brewer, via SD, in March 2013. When given a title crack, against then champ Daniel Geale, in March 2012, Adama didn't have all that much luck enroute to a conclusive UD12 loss. His best win came five months before, when he scored a TKO9 win over faded ex champ Roman Karmazin. He showed durability in stopping Don George's KO streak in a 2010 loss, but all in all, unless Golovkin (28-0 with 25 KOs) has some sort of wicked flu bug and is at 50% or gets caught with a shot he doesn't see, the challenger has next to no chance to get the W in Monaco.

Still, Golovkin is at a level where that's basically immaterial. We want to see if he can be the first guy to stop the Ghana native.

Adama possesses a good jab, which he works high and low. His hand speed is respectable, and his focus stays sharp. He doesn't usually get too wild, stupid, leave himself open for the obvious counter. His mobility is decent and he doesn't forget to move his torso and head, to minimize opponents' landing opportunities. He'll fight off the back foot come Saturday and will tuck his right arm to block left hooks from GGG, while mostly sliding to his left, into the path of the right hand. His work rate isn't overly stellar so Golovkin should have ample time to pick his spots, and unload heavy artillery.

When Adama gets excited, though, he tends to wing shots wide, sweep with his right hand, so he could get caught in between if and when he decided to try and test the GGG chin. Adama likes some distance between him and his foe and I suspect Golovkin will close that distance, and make him uncomfortable, in a big way. Adama's power is average and neither hand has the pop, I'm guessing, to even mildly buzz GGG. In the late innings against Geale, he didn't press the issue, show a sense of urgency to get the nod by imposing his will, and instead appeared to be trying to finish the fight.

"I'm very confident every time I step in the ring," Adama set at the final presser ahead of the tussle, for what it's worth. K2's Tom Loeffler lauded Adama for accepting the challenge, noting that a bunch of boxers begged off, citing the need to wash their hair that night, or asking for a ludicrous sum of money.

"I know my opponent, it's a very difficult fight for us," said Golovkin, hitting the right note of humility and respect for possibility of an upset.

All due respect to Golovkin, who seems to be the sort of pro who prepares maximally even if a foe is of minimum talent, it shouldn't be a difficult task to beat Adama. The drama will probably be, in what round does Golovkin render him too buzzed to continue.